Stress experiences in immature stage change the lateral habenular nucleus

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26640009
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: University of Toyama
• Principal Investigator: Ichijo Hiroyuki 富山大学, 大学院医学薬学研究部(医学), 教授 (40272190)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 外側手綱核 / 臨界期 / 母子分離ストレス / parvalbumin

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Structure and function of neuronal circuits are known to be modified under influences of experiences during immature stage, which is well known in mammalian sensory system as "critical period". However, nobody had examined whether there exists a critical period in emotion. Here, we report in mice that stress experiences in immature stage modify structure and function of the lateral habenular nucleus (LHb). Under influences of the repeated maternal separation, neuronal activity of the LHb was hyper-activated, which was correlated with decrease of the parvalbumin(PV)-positive neurons. Since the PV neurons belong to the GABAergic inhibitory neurons, it is thought that modification in the inhibitory neuronal circuits is involved with the experience-dependent activity changes in the LHb.

Free Research Field

神経科学